Takata Corp.'s bankruptcy filing last month was meant to draw a line under the auto industry's biggest safety recall, but last week's announcement of more air bag inflator recalls suggests automakers could face fresh liabilities in the future, Reuters reported yesterday. In late 2015, U.S. regulators gave Takata until the end of 2019 to prove that its air bag inflators — which now have a drying agent to combat moisture that can degrade the ammonium nitrate compound in its inflators, with potentially lethal results — are also safe. If Takata fails that test — and some industry consultants, explosives experts and former employees question whether the workaround guarantees safety over the long term — it may have to recall all its ammonium nitrate-based inflators. That could include the around 100 million inflators already slated for recall, and 100 million inflators Takata has produced to date with a drying agent. Takata says a third of those desiccated inflators have been used as replacements in the ongoing recall, with the rest going to automakers as part of regular supply contracts. Takata's automaker customers, which have so far borne much of the estimated $10 billion cost of replacing faulty bag inflators, could be on the hook for future liabilities in the event that Takata fails to prove that the desiccant workaround is sufficient.
